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What’s More Important SEO and Web Traffic or Fans and Readers?

December 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In his blog post If you’re looking for more traffic, STOP!, Derek Halpern, owner of Social Triggers makes a good point: You don’t want web traffic, you want readers.

English: Direct Report If readers are informed...web traffic

English: Direct Report If readers are informed If readers are supportive If readers are eager to have results first (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why are so many entrepreneurs and corporate conglomerates beating the SEO drum when they should be focused on beating the drum to get more readers on their websites?

Traffic doesn’t pay, but readers do. They pay by commenting on your posts. They pay by tweeting and liking your poss. They literally pay by purchasing your products and services. Treat them with the respect they deserve. They’re more than numbers on your Google Analytics spreadsheets!

SEO and Web Traffic or Fans and Readers: What or Who’s More Important?

There’s nothing wrong with implementing ethical SEO techniques so your blog or website ranks well in search engines like Google, Bing, etc. However, it’s more important to focus on your target audience aka fans and readers. SEO alone doesn’t get you noticed or sales. Readers turn into fans and eventually turn into followers and buyers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Authors, Clients, Overcoming Obstacles, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Exhausted? How to Grow Your Blog without SEO and Social Media

October 17, 2012 by 4 Comments
exhausted: grow your blog without seo and social media

Exhausted (Photo credit: ex.libris)

Has commenting on forums and other blog posts day after day left you exhausted and worn out?

Are you getting sick and tired of social media and feeling like a hamster on wheel that goes nowhere?

Have you spent thousands of dollars on SEO software or hired a social media manager, director, or assistant, but still haven’t seen results?

If you answered YES to these questions, you’re not alone.

First, SEO is fine but it’s not the end all be all to growing a blog.

Second, unless you’re spending money on Facebook and Google ads, social media may not work for you. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Authors, Clients, Freelance Writing, Overcoming Obstacles, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cool and Useful WordPress Plugins

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

If you use WordPress.org, you’re probably familiar with plugins. Make sure you don’t go overboard with plugins because your hosting company may not have the ‘space’ for your website if it contains a lot of plugins. Of course, you could purchase a ‘higher’ hosting package that gives you more space on a server. It’s something to think about. Anyway, here are cool and useful WordPress plugins for you to check out and use on your website.

If you’re worried about spam, WordPress.org has an Askimet plugin that catches spammers. For example,I have the following message on my WP Dashboard, “Akismet has protected your site from 21,271 spam comments already. There’s nothing in your spam queue at the moment.” I’ve been using WordPress.org since 2009 and never had a problem with Askimet.

To make your blog posts easy to retweet, use TweetMeme. It’s simple to download and upload to your plugins folder via your FTP system. Hint: Most hosting companies have their own FTP. But you can always use an external FTP.

How many times do you ‘thank’ people for leaving comments on your blog? If you don’t, consider using Thank Me Later which automatically sends a ‘thank you’ to visitors that leave comments on your blog posts. BTW: I wish I knew about this one because I was ‘manually’ sending emails to visitors. Better late than never!

Does it irk you when readers don’t leave thoughtful comments? Install Minimum Comment Length to improve the quality of comments left on your blog posts. Let’s face it; leaving a “Great post! Good post! Thank for the information!” doesn’t cut it. You want people to leave engaging, thought provoking comments.

Unfortunately, some visitors to your website may not have good intentions. Use WTC Comment Cleaner to strip out malicious and unwanted code such as css, javascript tags, etc. It’s good to have a ‘high level’ of security on your blog/website.

Some visitors may or may not appreciate the Comment E-Mail Verification plugin because they’ll have to login to their email and ‘verify’ their comment by clicking on the link that’s sent to them. Once they click on the link, their comment will be approved and automatically posted. This is a good way to engage visitors. No email is send if Askimet or some other plugin recognizes the comment as spam.

Do you have a newsletter? How would you like to build your list? Use the WordPress Newsletter plugin to ‘collect’ subscriber information such as name and email address. Please read the user guide to get the most out of this plugin.

Do you feel like a ‘head case’ when it comes to SEO? You could use the All in One SEO plugin or try HeadSpace 2 SEO. If you spend too much time worrying about SEO, HeadSpace2 SEO will make your troubles disappear. HeadSpace provides a video that explains ‘How To’ use the plugin.

How many times do you backup your WordPress website? Download and use WP-DB Manager to backup your files. You can backup, repair, restore, delete a backup, etc. with this plugin.

*Some of the plugins are compatible up to 3.2.1. If WordPress upgrades to WordPress 3.3, some plugins may not work unless they’re updated too.

Rebecca

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Filed Under: Authors, Clients, Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Ghostwriter, Networking, Overcoming Obstacles, Screenwriting, Search Engine Optimization, Tips and Tricks, Travel Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

7 Benefits of Hiring a Ghost Writer

August 29, 2011 by 3 Comments
laptop

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s face it; some people don’t enjoy the art of writing as much as others do. Some find writing to be a tedious and time consuming process; they’d rather be golfing. Hiring a ghost writer could work for you because you hire a person who loves to write. Most writers (me) find writing to be second nature — it’s like breathing. If you have an idea for a book or eBook, consider hiring a ghost writer today. Tomorrow, you could be selling and earning income on Amazon.com

Benefits of hiring a ghost writer

1. The pressure if off of you to write and produce a book.

2. You’re able to spend time on other things such as setting up a website/blog, social media sites, email campaigns, etc. However, a ghost write that’s skilled in marketing and social media can assist you with these business endeavors.

3. You receive a well written book or eBook.

4. You take all the credit. However, some ghost writers are given credit because they’ve worked with a client numerous times. It’s important to work with a ghost write that’s checked their ‘ego’ at the door.

5. A ghost writer loves to write and will probably finish your book ahead of the scheduled deadline.

6. A ghost writer understands the importance of marketability and can give you objective feedback on your book’s subject matter.

7. Hiring a ghost writer means you don’t have to through the process alone. Perhaps you considered writing the book yourself but didn’t want to work alone; the writer’s life isn’t for you. However, working with a ghost writer may inspire you to co-author your next book. It could happen.

When you hire a ghost writer, it can feel as if a burden or weight has been lifted off of you. Your time can be spent on the business side, i.e., developing your web presence, scheduling interviews and speaking engagements, building a social media platform, connecting with the ‘right’ people, etc. You don’t have to worry about your book because it’s in good hands with your ghost writer. You can now breathe a ‘sigh’ of relief.

Rebecca

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Filed Under: Authors, Clients, Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Ghostwriter, Networking, Overcoming Obstacles, Publishing, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Freelance Writers Use Zemanta … Clients Can Too

August 10, 2011 by 2 Comments
Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

I was interviewed by Andraž Tori, one of the founders of Zemanta, on July 30, 2011. I was introduced to this revolutionary new program from one of the owners of the WM Freelance Writers Connection. Zemanta is easy-to-use and install. More importantly, a blogger doesn’t have to scour the internet for links and pictures. It’s a time-saver!

What is Zemanta? Zemanta is “a revolutionary new platform for accelerating on-line content production for any web user. Any user-created text (a blog post, article or web page) is directly “read” by Zemanta, which recognizes all contextual content. Zemanta then combs the web for the most relevant images, smart links, keywords and text, instantly serving these results to the user to enrich and inform their content. What’s more, Zemanta can be deployed on all major content publishing platforms and web browsers through a simple plug-in.”

What I really like about Zemanta is their attention to customer service. For example, a few weeks ago Zemanta wasn’t working. I wasn’t sure if it was because of WordPress, my hosting company, or the program. I emailed support and someone actually responded to my email. Lo and behold, the program had a glitch which was fixed in no time. This impressed me.

I was happy to be interviewed by Andraž Tori because Zemanta’s management team wants to improve the program; they need and want input from users. I was asked about my experience using the program (so far, so good), how I use the program, what I did and did not like, and how the program could be improved. It was a thorough interview. As a freelance writer, I’m always on the lookout for helpful programs for writers and their clients.

What I like about Zemanta

1. Easy to install and uninstall.

2. Very user friendly.

3. Provides links and photos pertinent to your blog content.

4. Sign up with Zemanta and utilize preferences such as permanently having links open in a new window; submit your website to Zemanta, etc.

If you haven’t heard of Zemanta, try it today. It’s free to use so you have nothing to lose. I downloaded Zemanta for Firefox and Google Chrome (still testing and using the web browser). Again, it’s very easy to install and uninstall if you don’t care for it. If you decide you like Zemanta, let others know about it. Share the knowledge!

Rebecca

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